BUSINESS leaders have said Scottish councils should buy more goods and services from local firms.
The Federation of Small Businesses said the move would deliver a £140 million annual boost to local economies in its manifesto launched ahead of May’s council elections.
The FSB said that Scottish councils have a combined procurement budget of around £7 billion, but the average Scottish local authority spends less than a third of this budget with businesses from within its boundaries.
The small business campaign group said that if all councils gave local firms two additional percentage points of their total procurement budgets per year, this would deliver the £140m annual boost to local economies across Scotland.
Andrew McRae, FSB Scotland policy chair, said businesses and councils across Scotland have a shared interest in local economic recovery.
“Working together, they can be huge drivers of change in their communities,” he said. “That’s why we’re urging parties and candidates at this year’s elections to get behind the great firms on their doorsteps. Modest procurement spending targets could deliver massive compound benefits.”
The manifesto also urges councils to support new businesses, with a focus on boosting new-starts led by traditionally under-represented groups, including women and migrants. It argues this new help could be delivered through the council-run Business Gateway service,
Statistics show that immigrant-led small and medium-sized businesses contribute £13bn a year to the Scottish economy. But FSB research found that this group of entrepreneurs were likely to be unaware of state-funded sources of enterprise support and business advice. A study FSB conducted with Women’s Enterprise Scotland also shows that women-owned businesses created almost 80,000 jobs between 2012 and 2015, but just one in five are owned by women.
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